Life Before Hogwarts Chapter 2
by fallaway776
Summary: Bree celebrates her birthday with her family. The Williams family visits Diagon Alley to get all the supplies needed for Bree's school year at Hogwarts. UPCOMING Chapter 3: Bree will go to Hogwarts and meet some of the main characters from the HP series. Thanks so much for reading! :) fallaway776


**Chapter 3**

Bree slowly opened her eyes and yawned. She looked around her room, watching the stray particles of dust floating around in rays of sunlight from her partially opened curtains. Someone knocked on her door, and her mother peeped her head into the room. Seeing that she was awake she said,

 **"Bree! Happy birthday!"**

That was when Bree remembered, it was her birthday! She couldn't believe she hadn't thought about it when she first woke up.

She jumped out of bed, thanking her mother and bounding towards the bathroom to take a shower and get dressed.

Her mother laughed and went to the kitchen to finish cooking breakfast.

Twenty minutes later, Bree walked out and saw the dining room table that was set and two brown packages that were sitting by a vase of freshly picked wildflowers.

Her father and Charlie came downstairs, wished Bree a happy birthday, and sat down at the table. Bree's father had taken most of the day off to celebrate her birthday. The family sat down and ate a filling breakfast of bacon, fried eggs, grilled tomatoes, hash browns, buttered toast, and tea.

After breakfast, Mrs. Williams did her usual "cleaning up" which was really just pointing her wand at the table and seeing the dishes magically float in stacks to the sink, and be washed by themselves.

Seated in the living room, Bree ripped the brown packaging off her presents. She was happy to see that she had gotten the necklace she had been wanting, along with the next book from her favorite series _The Witch and The Knight_. "Thanks, mum, thanks, dad!" She said, beaming.

"You're welcome, Bree!" Said both her parents at the same time. The rest of the day was spent celebrating by having a picnic in the field and eating birthday cake.

* * *

Exactly one week later, Mrs. Williams, Bree and her brother Charlie were walking down the packed cobblestone street of Diagon Alley. Mrs. Wililams held tightly onto Charlie's hand, afraid he would wander off and get lost. They entered **Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions,** keen to buy at least three robes for Bree's upcoming school year.

Thirty minutes later, three new and well-fitting robes were in Bree's bag. They were walking towards **Potage's Cauldron Shop** to get a cauldron for the soon to be Hogwarts student. They kept visiting different shops, getting things that Bree would need at Hogwarts, such as 1st-year textbooks, potion ingredients, quills, and ink bottles.

Finally, it was time to walk over to the shop that Bree had been looking the most forward to going to, almost her entire life. She would be visiting **Ollivanders** and getting her very own wand. They tried to hurriedly make their way over to the shop, but the bustling crowds going both ways were extremely hard to navigate.

 _ **Looks like everyone else chose to go to Diagon Alley today, too...**_ Mrs. Williams thought, holding even more tightly onto Charlie's hand, who was trying to slip away to look at a fancy broomstick in a shop window.

They were just about to enter the shop when they saw Mr. Williams hurrying down the street and waving at them.

 **"I got off work early and decided to come and find you."** Said Mr. Williams, smiling, and taking a heavy bag of textbooks from Mrs. Williams.

 **"Hello, Dad,"** Said Bree and Charlie. Bree was impatient to get inside the wand shop.

 **"Oliver, I'm going to take Charlie to go and get an ice cream cone from Fortescue's. Can you stay here with Bree and see that she gets her wand?"** Said Mrs. Williams, trying to keep a hold of Charlie who was still after the broomstick.

 **"Oh, yes, alright. Catch you later."** Said Mr. Williams.

After waiting in line at the wand shop for a few minutes, Mr. Williams stood in the corner of the shop reading the newspaper while Bree timidly walked up the front desk, smiling at Mr. Ollivander, who smiled back and asked her what her name was.

 **"Bree."** she spluttered out.

 **"Ahhh, you must be Bree Williams. Your father works at Magical Menagerie, doesn't he?"** Mr. Ollivander asked, seeing her father in the corner.

Mr. Williams looked up from his newspaper and answered him for Bree.

 **"Yes, I do. Good to see you, Mr. Ollivander!"**

 **"Good to see you too... Now, back to you, Bree. I think I know just what to get you."**

Bree smiled back and waited as Mr. Ollivander walked to one of the long shelves, running his finger over the small, long boxes. " **Ah ah. Here we are."** He pulled out a box and opened it. Taking it out of its packaging, he held it out to Bree and said, **"If you could just point it at that flower vase, please..."**

Bree gulped, took the wand, and pointed it in the direction Mr. Ollivander had pointed. A feeble light shot out the end, hit the vase and bounced off the wall, then disappeared. The vase still stood on its table, unharmed.

 **"No, no... that won't do."** Sighed Mr. Ollivander. Bree gave the wand back to him, and he put it back in the box. He went over to the shelves again and took two more boxes. **"This one is yew wood, reasonably springy and quite easy to hold."** He handed her one of the boxes, and this time, instead of even hitting the vase, it blew up.

 **"That's not it!"** Said Mr. Ollivander, repairing the vase with a point of his wand.

He handed her the next wand, but that one didn't work either, beach it jumped right out of Bree's hand. She was both surprised and a little happy that it had not worked for her, because it was rather stubby and short. She had always envisioned her future wand to be long, skinny and easy to hold.

 **"Hmm... here let me see."** Mr. Ollivander said thoughtfully, walking to the back shelves and getting a dusty old wand box. He opened the box and handed her a long, dark brown wand.

 **"This one's 11 inches... Holly, vine and unicorn hair..."** He mumbled.

Bree pointed the wand at the vase, hoping that this wand would work for her because she really liked the way this one felt and looked.

The vase fell to the floor and shattered. Mr. Ollivander smiled and said,

 **"Ah ah! That's it! Bree, that's your new wand..."** Mr. Ollivander beamed at her.

Bree beamed back, happy to be holding her very own wand at last.

Mr. Williams paid for the wand and they walked back to the pet shop he worked at.

 **''Bree, how would you like a third, late birthday present?"**

Bree smiled and said, **"Oh, yes please!"**

They entered the smelly but cheerful shop. Mr. Williams walked behind the counter and took out a cage. Inside the cage, there was a miniature brown owl, hopping around at the bottom. It looked up at Bree, blinking its eyes. Bree laughed and took the cage, thanking her father for the cutest owl she had ever seen.

Later on, they met up with Mrs. Williams and Charlie. They decided to call it a day and head home. Their mother was not so excited about the owl, but after thinking about it a moment, decided that it really was quite cute, and it wouldn't be at their home much during the year, anyways. Besides, whenever it was home, it would give their own owl, Gwen, someone to play with.

 **"Is it a boy or a girl?"** Charlie chimed in, his face and arms smeared with chocolate ice cream.

 **"That's a good question... it's a girl."** Said Mr. Williams.

While Bree thought about what to name her new owl, the family went inside the **Leaky Cauldron** and over to the large fireplaces in the back of the room, which is what wizards and witches used if they didn't want to apparate, or if they were unable to because they were underage, or they hadn't gotten their license yet. Mrs. Williams went first, grabbing some Floo powder from the flower pot sitting on the hearth. She stepped into the flames (which is a reasonable and safe thing that witches and wizards can do), threw the powder down on the floor and shouted **"Home!"**

Bright green flames surrounded her, and burst into flames, then disappeared.

 **"After you two go, I'm going to apparate. I don't like having to use the Floo Powder system if I don't have to. I've just never liked the way it feels..."** Said Mr. Williams.

The children exchanged glances and smiled. Their father was always talking about how much he loved apparating...

Charlie went into the fire, threw down the Floo powder and shouted **"Home!"** and burst into green flames, just the way his mother had.

When it was Bree's turn, she said: **"See you at home."** Her father waved at her in reply.

Being careful not to hurt her new unnamed owl, she grabbed some Floo powder, threw it into the flames surrounding her (which also didn't affect the owl because this _is_ the wizarding world), and shouted, **"Home!"** Green flames surrounded her, but she didn't feel any intense heat, just a warm, light tickling sensation on her face. For a split second, she saw her father waving and smiling at her, and then she was gone, being sucked up the "chimney." She felt the familiar sick sensation of being squeezed up a tight tube. She started feeling really nauseous, but only for a split second because suddenly she was climbing out of the fireplace in her own living room.

Her mother was already unpacking some of the bags from various shops in her room, and Charlie had gone to his room to play with a new toy he had gotten at Diagon Alley.

Their father walked in a few minutes later, and Mrs. Williams started making dinner.

When dinner was finished, Bree went to the window where the two owls were sitting in their cages. Her new owl was happily pecking away at her food, but Gwen, who was about a foot away in her own cage, did not like this new invasion of her space.

 **"Get over it, Gwen. She's leaving in a few days, anyway."** Bree whispered to the owl. Gwen turned her head away from her and ignored her for the rest of the time that she was petting her new owl. She was stroking her head when she noticed that the owl kept blinking every so often like she had done when she first picked her up at the pet shop. That's when she decided on a name.

 **"Hello,** ** _Blink."_**

Blink hooted cheerfully at her new name, then took a sip of water, and went to the back of the cage and put her head under her wing. A moment later, she was fast asleep.

Later that night, Bree packed all her luggage because she would be leaving in a few days and didn't want to lose anything. She went to bed happy and content, falling into a deep sleep, exhausted from the long and tiring day meandering around Diagon Alley.

* * *

 _ **To anyone who has read all 3 chapters of my fanfiction so far, thanks so much! I know I said that Harry Potter characters (besides the one mentioned in this chapter) would come in Chapter 2 at Hogwarts, but that will actually be chapter 4. I'll post Chapter 4 sometimes tomorrow (5/5/18). Thanks again for reading!**_

 _ **fallaway776**_


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